Important Winter Festivals of Hindus

Our forefathers had a way of living in tune with the nature. We, of course, carry with us a few aspects of these as tradition, unknowingly with us still, when we celebrate our festivals.

Here I talk about three important festivals, namely Navarathri, Deepavali and Karthigai which generally fall in the last quarter of the year.

Navarathri comes during September/October when it is rainy season for South India. Navarathri, it is believed that Goddess Durga emerges triumphant after destroying the demon Mahishasura. We pray the other two Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswathi too during these 9 days.

There is one custom in south India that people follow even today.They arrange dolls of Gods/Godesses, Gurus, other fellow human beings and also those of birds and animals on a special stand erected with number of steps counting to odd number. This is referred as Bommai Kolu and people display all their creativity.

Also, we still follow the custom of preparing sundals from pulses and distributing them to invitees as well as visitors after offering them to kolu gods. Our ancestors had this practice because during the rainy season, the yield of fresh vegetables would either be less or be washed out. To maintain the balance of nutrition in food the sundals must have substituted them.

Deepavali comes on a new moon day and it is the beginning of the month Aswin (Iyppasi) for those who follow Moon Calender. So the second half of the year starts with Deepavali, which means there is drastic change in climatic condition. To strengthen the physical body to adopt to new condition our forefathers introduced the custom of taking oil bath. The custom of taking oil bath cannot be brushed away as old fashion. It cools the entire system, the skin gets enough nourishment, strengthens inner organs. The early morning oil bath prepares us to meet the adverse changes in nature around us. Further, in this season all new viruses emerge in the atmosphere. To kill/drive away the insects we fire crackers which produce smoke.
In olden days even wild animals may come out of their dwelling place. To frighten them the bombs are fired, the loud sound filling the entire surrounding may drive away the animals.

Karthigai The rains will stop and the real winter will start setting in. We have a custom to keep lamps made out of mud ( agal vilakku) in front of the house throughout the month. Those days we had only pockets of villages and not big towns/ cities like today. The lit lamps served the purpose of revealing the travelers and/or the pilgrims the existence of a village nearby. The lamps are lit in the evening itself as the Sun sets early during winter months.

Here a model kolu designed with photoshop is displayed

Few photos taken on Deepavali day at/around Sri Kapali temple are given below.

Deepavali is one festival when, irrespective of age and economic status, people from infants to late 80s visit temples in brand new dress. Hence, I took pictures inside temple and nearby

You will have one more picture where Karthigai is being celebrated at home.

Here is a bonus. Kandasashti falls on the 6th day from Deepavali. Lord Muruga defeats the demon Tarakasura and marries Devasena, daughter of Indra. Lord Muruga splits Soora into two parts and Soora surrenders. Then the two parts become Cock and Peacock. Coak becomes Lord Muruga's flag and Peacock his vahana. The video link given displays the dance of cock and peacock before joining the lord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CotmHibabvo

L.V. Prasad Film & T.V Academy- Walk with Director K. Hariharan

Hi everybody
Feels nice to write in my blog after a year.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend an event "Talk and Walk Inside Studio" organised by Namma Arcot Road a recent set up of the Arcot Road neighbourhood. A public talk by the Director of the L.V. Prasad & T.V. Academy, Sri K. Hariharan, on the studio's heritage and walk through the Studio were the agenda. It was open to all.


As I have a passion for videography/docu films I rushed to the venue, a little late due to the distance from my place, rainy weather/festival Saturday.

It was a wonderful experience. Sri Hariharan took us to the hall with high ceiling and different lights fitted to it. From there to the settings like the bar, office room, kitchen, bed room etc and finally to the camera room with projector equipment and the erstwhile 70mm camera. In the meantime we were provided with snacks. Sri Hariharan gave us information about film projector and the 70mm camera of yesteryear.

We then assembled in his class room. We were around 50 in number. Sri Hariharan introduced Sri Sivaraman, the General Manager of Prasad studio for 40 years now. Sri Sivaraman, very passionate about the neighbourhood and also the studio, gave some interesting anecdotes. He could recall the visits of VIPs/Celebrities.

The area beyond Vadapalani Bus Stand was like a village with paddy fields when the studio was
started. There were few more studios, like Vasu Studio, Sharada Studio etc. Beyond Vadapalani the only mode of transport was Jatka vandi. There was only one mess (Subbiah mess) nearby serving as outdoor catering, which provided full lunch for 90 paise.

VIPs like Raj Kapoor, Mrinal Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra etc., have visited the Studio.
Mrinal sen once insisted to go to a local South Indian Hotel instead of Star hotel near Mount Road and enjoyed food in a dingy small eatery in that area.

The Vijaya Vauhini Studio was one of the biggest in Asia with 14 floors. But later some floors were closed and Vijaya Hospital was established. The multi speciality concept was first introduced in Vijaya Hospital. The other studios gave way to godowns and multistory complexes.
Once a muddy village Arunachalam Road now has become vibrant where the L.V. Prasad studio is housed.
Sri Sivaraman ended with a proud note about the neighbourhood.

Be it Sri L.V. Prasad, Sri Nagi Reddy or Sri A.V. Meyyappan, they produced national cinema rather than mere Tamil cinemas, exclaimed Sri Hariharan. RajKapoor, Mehboob Khan and other North Indians produced regional cinemas only, whereas we could give in all languages like Tamil,Telugu and Hindi at a time. Great actors like NTR, Ranga Rao, Prem Nazeer and MGR have all lived in Madras as contemporaries.

About L.V. Prasad, he said, the great human being wanted to plough back his entire wealth into cinema, as he earned everything through cinema. He could provide facilities at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Trivandrum when it was requested. His life's mission was to provide a school for film studies in his studios for those who have interest in film making, as he never had formal education in this line. The result, we see today the L.V. Prasad Film & T.V. Academy, established by his son Sri. Ramesh Prasad, for which aptly Sri. Hariharan is the Director who, as all of us know, is an award winning film maker.

Photo 1: Sri. Hariharan with audience in one of the setting rooms inside the studio.

Photo 2: Sri.Hariharan with 70mm film role.

As I had some problem in uploading 2 video clippings in this page itself, am giving the YouTube URL for the same.

The first one is the demonstration by Sri. Hariharan on Film Projector and the second on the 70mm Camera of yesteryear ( the last film probably was 'Ek duje Keliye')

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Iib7xdgTo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiFKgv9rBdw